Oak Ridge finishes in 5th with win over DB at Arby’s

Oak Ridge left Bristol Monday night knowing they were among the elite in East Tennessee. The Wildcats defeated Dobyns-Bennett 48-33 for their second win over the Indians in as many weeks and claimed fifth place in the Arby’s Classic at Viking Hall.

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By Robert Holder

Oakridger - Oak Ridge, TN

By Robert Holder

Posted Jan. 2, 2013 at 6:00 AM

By Robert Holder
Posted Jan. 2, 2013 at 6:00 AM

BRISTOL

Oak Ridge left Bristol Monday night knowing they were among the elite in East Tennessee. The Wildcats defeated Dobyns-Bennett 48-33 for their second win over the Indians in as many weeks and claimed fifth place in the Arby’s Classic at Viking Hall.

“I was really pleased with our defensive effort,” coach Aaron Green said. “It was good to see our kids not take them for granted because we beat them by such a large margin last time.”

The Wildcats got their third win of the tournament with one of their best defensive efforts of the year holding DBHS to just nine field goals the entire game, 14 points at halftime and just 19 points total after three quarters.

Oak Ridge defeated the Indians 68-38 before Christmas at the Kia Shootout at Science Hill.

“It was nice to finish that tournament at 3-1 and bring home some hardware,” coach Green said. “Fifth doesn’t really sound like that great of a finish but you’ve got 18 really good teams and some of the better teams in the southeast, it’s not a bad place to finish the year.”

Cory Fagan, who had a solid tournament for the ’Cats led them in the final game with 13 points including going 3-of-4 shooting from the three-point line.

Isaac Merian had 11 and Jaylin Henderson had nine points and five steals.

Merian and Rian Hall were named to the All-Tournament team for their efforts. Hall finished with five points against the Indians and had nine rebounds.

“Cory had a really good tournament,” Green said. “Rian had a good tournament. Isaac had spurts where he played really well. Jaylin Henderson contributed in different spots in different ways ... we had good balance throughout the week.

“If we can get it clicking where we have three, four, five guys playing real well at the same time, we can be really, really dangerous.”

Alantez Johnson led Dobyns-Bennett (9-4) with nine points. A.J. Anderson had eight. No other Indians player had more than four.

The fifth place finish put Oak Ridge ahead of all others in the area. Only Memphis Melrose finished higher than the Wildcats among teams in the state. Oak Ridge lost to Melrose 71-79 in the semifinals of the winner’s bracket after leading by one in the third quarter.

Urspring School of Ulm, Germany, won the tournament defeating Mentor, Ohio, 63-51. Mentor was runner-up at the Classic for the second year in a row.

Melrose finished third after defeating Christ School, N.C.

Oak Ridge will return to action at Wildcat Arena on Friday against District 3-AAA foe Hardin Valley. The Wildcats (12-3) can keep pace with Powell and Halls in the District race with a win before traveling to Knoxville Fulton for their second game with the Falcons this season.

Page 2 of 2 - Oak Ridge defeated Fulton during the Prep Xtra Classic 66-42 on Nov. 21. Tip-off for the Saturday contests are 5 p.m. for the girls junior varsity, 6:30 for the girls varsity and 8 p.m. for the boys varsity.

The Friday games against Hardin Valley are at the normal times, 4:30, 6 and 7:30 p.m.